The invention pertains to an aircraft, particularly a remote-controlled miniature aircraft, with at least one lift surface, with at least one pair of propeller drives and with a weight element, the position of which can be varied in the longitudinal direction of the aircraft in order to change the center of gravity of the aircraft.
An aircraft of this general type was disclosed in WO 2008/007147 A1. In this case, a pendulum arranged underneath the aircraft is used as weight element. A hovering state of the aircraft can be achieved if the pendulum is suitably positioned. This aircraft is furthermore equipped with a wing unit, a tail unit and respectively separate control surfaces.
In this case using a pendulum, it is disadvantageous that such an aircraft or miniature aircraft can only be safely operated after an extended training period. In addition, such an aircraft is relatively bulky-due to a tail boom for the tail unit and/or the pendulum-like arrangement of the weight element. This arrangement complicates the transport of the aircraft. Furthermore, the aircraft may be easily damaged during its transport and/or an unfavorable flight maneuver.
This significantly limits the potential applications of an aircraft, for example, as a reconnaissance drone.
The invention therefore is based on the objective of enhancing an aircraft, particularly a remote-controlled miniature aircraft, in such a way that a more compact and more robust construction with improved flying characteristics is realized.